Plot: Akane is an ace in volleyball, but when Miyuki sees her during a league match, she does much poorly than she did earlier in a match with her classmates.
Later, Miyuki finds her practicing very hard under a bridge. She stops for a minute, and Miyuki sees drops fall from her face. Believing her to be sad from doing poorly in the match, Miyuki rushes down to cheer her up only to find that what she believed to be tears of sadness were really beads of sweat from working so hard. Miyuki offers to help Akane practice, and she agrees.
The next day, Akane has another volleyball match, and it’s going a lot better. However, Wolfrun’s not one to let a good day end well. He starts another Bad End and summons a volleyball-themed Akanbe. Miyuki transforms to take him on, but she wastes her attack and cannot gather the energy for another.
Akane starts to snap out of her Bad End daze when she realizes Miyuki’s in danger. Wanting to protect her friend, she takes on the Akanbe by herself. Her intense determination prompts her Smile Pact to appears – She is actually Cure Sunny!
Akane transforms into the fiery warrior and takes down the Akanbe. Having saved the day, Akane accepts her role as a Precure to save the world with her friend, Miyuki.
——————-
Title Change: Burn! It’s the Hot-Blooded Cure Sunny is changed to Kelsey….*sigh*…..Kelsey gets a Makeover…..
While I’m glad they left in the bowing scene, I feel like what they did to it makes it lose points. In order to keep the bowing in there without daring to say this is a Japanese custom, they say that it’s a traditional Jubiland greeting. This is kinda clever, but it also makes it seem….I don’t want to say offensive, but it’s edging that way. They’d rather say this is some goofy fantasy greeting than just admit that this takes place in Japan.
They remove the ‘sound lines’ over Candy when her stomach growls.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
Dub!Candy: “My tummy does that when I get hungry.”….Did…you need to explain why your stomach was growling? Is that a traditional Jubiland tummy rumble?
Why is Miyuki/Emily acting like she’s never heard of there being other Precure/warriors besides her? Last episode, Candy said it like three times in the dub and at least once in the original. Plus, the opening scene to this episode has her reminding us and her of that fact.
But, of course, Emily the psychic remembers. While Miyuki is just psyched to hear there are other Precures, Emily suddenly remembers that the other warriors are the girls from her class that she saw in her dream.
The two beings behind Wolfrun are silent in the original. In the dub, they say ‘The Big Bad Wolf is huffing and puffing again’ Get it? They also make little comments throughout the short scene with Ulric.
Hino Special Attack is changed to Sledgehammer Slammer. It’s only a volleyball move, though.
Nitpicky, but Nao says Akane’s the ace attacker in the volleyball club. In the dub, she says Kelsey’s the best attacker in the league.
Kelsey: “I always knew she was a brainiac.”
Lily: “I don’t get it.”
I don’t get it, either, Lily. For context purposes, Emily hit the ball with her face. That’s still part of her head, but the ‘brainiac’ thing just doesn’t work.
Also, in the original, Akane ‘praised’ Kise’s ‘whimpering receive’ and Kise insists she wasn’t crying.
Miyuki…just kinda selects Akane and Kise to be Precure because Akane’s sporty and Kise’s…gentle. I don’t know why Kise’s criteria is working for her here, but okay. In the dub, she decides now’s the perfect time to tell Kelsey and Lily that they’re Glitter Force Warriors.
Ya know, Candy, if you wanted Precure to be a secret maybe tell Miyuki that before sending her off on a mission to find the other Precure….
Candy tells Miyuki that Precure is a secret and not just anyone can become one. She asks how she can find the real Precure, and Candy says she doesn’t know. Miyuki says that it can’t be too hard to be one if a klutzy airhead like her is one, and Candy agrees, making Miyuki mad. She yanks on Candy’s cheeks and tells her she’s not supposed to agree with that.
In the dub, Candy says she can’t just blurt out the Glitter Force thing to them because they’d never believe her. Emily asks how she should tell them, and Candy says she doesn’t know. Emily becomes frustrated because there isn’t much of a Glitter Force with just her and Candy agrees. Emily starts yanking on her cheeks for not being supportive.
Name Change: Yuka is changed to Jasmine….Must resist urge to reference Aladdin…Stop, Twix….You won’t even make sense with it….Just stop.
Miyuki says that your happiness disappears when you cry, so Akane should smile. Emily tells her that, as you long as you keep trying, you’ll always get a happy ending.
Eyecatches: 
I’m going to say this right now – if the ‘poof poof glitter’ stuff is in every one of the other girls transformation sequences, I…am going to die while doing this comparison. My internal organs all deteriorated to the flimsiness of tissue paper going through the Mew Mew power in my face for 26 episodes. I will not survive this.
So, please….Saban…have mercy on me. I beg you.
So all of Wolfrun’s monsters are named Akanbe and, likewise, all of Ulric’s monsters are called Buffoon…..Really wish they had chosen something different because it’s impossible to take that name even a little seriously. You might as well name them ‘Disposable idiot pawn.’
Oh goodie, they’re keeping in the ‘We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you!?’ thing….Do they not hear how goofy some of this stuff sounds?
It’s not often you see magical girl shows include such realistic newbie things like missing an attack or running out of energy early on because they’re inexperienced. They usually just have trouble remembering to do this or that. Good job, Smile Precure.
Miyuki says she’s not crying because, if she was, her happiness would go away, so she has to smile. Akane then repeats what she said about smiling. In the dub, Emily says she’s not crying, it’s just sweat, like the misunderstanding with Akane earlier. She’s not going to quit before the happy ending. Wolfrun pulls back in surprise while Ulric goes ‘yeech’ I assume because she said she was sweating.
Miyuki catches herself and says she wasn’t supposed to admit she was Miyuki because she’s supposed to keep her identity a secret. In the dub, she says she’s technically Glitter Lucky now.
They kinda dumb down Miyuki’s speech, which is a little amazing since it’s already incredibly simple. She says friends are always there for you, in the good times and bad. No matter the situation, friendship makes everything better. When she yells out she says that friendship really matters.
In the dub, Emily recaps that Kelsey was the first friend she made in school, and that when she was nervous on her first day, Kelsey made her feel better. When she yells out she says ‘Friendship is the most awesomest thing ever!’
Uh oh, Saban also adopted 4Kids’ fear of scenes with mouth flaps being silent. During the flashback mashup, it’s silent barring the music. In the dub, they add in the voices.
And, like 4Kids, they get the lines wrong in the flashback. Because, goddammit, it is so hard to go back and see what was said. Actually, they made more work for themselves by having them re-do the lines for the flashback when they could’ve copy/pasted the takes from the flashback.
Akane hears Wolfrun calling Miyuki a weakling and becomes upset that he has the audacity to make fun of her friend. The dub is basically the same, but she also says she thinks the reason Ulric puts down friendship so much is because he doesn’t have any friends.
The dub kinda makes no sense. In the original, Candy says that they’ve found the second Precure. In the dub, she says Kelsey has accepted her destiny as part of the Glitter Force. Uh, no she didn’t. All she did was try to save her friend. She agreed to nothing.
Wow. Akane’s transformation kicks ass. We went from using a glittery makeup poof to put on clothes to friggin’ fire bursting onto her body to make her outfit.
The differences for the transformations are nearly the same barring…yes, oh god, yes, they got rid of the ‘poof poof’! All she says is ‘Glitter bands – Glitter boots’ Thank god. And instead of saying ‘I’m glittertastic’ she says ‘This girl’s on fire!’ Bless you, Kelsey.
Akane’s post-transformation speech is ‘Dazzling sun! Hot-blooded power! Cure Sunny!’ Kelsey’s is ‘When you mess with me, you’re playing with fire! I’m Glitter Sunny!’
Emily: “Just like in my dream, it’s amazing!” Yes, Emily, we get it. You’re psychic in the dub for no discernible reason.
Akane is a little embarrassed by saying ‘Dazzling sun! Cure Sunny!’ but Miyuki says it’s great because a ‘dazzling sun’ fits her passionate personality wonderfully. In the dub, Kelsey’s kinda embarrassed at calling herself Glitter Sunny. Emily runs over and says she looks great. Kelsey asks if it’s too much, and Emily says it’s not and that her clothes match her hair. Then she proceeds to tell her about all the cool accessories and powers she’ll get now. Because why compliment her on her personality when you can say she looks pretty and that she’ll get cool accessories and stuff now?
At Miyuki’s compliments, Akane says that the sun does indeed fit a superhero such as herself. Kelsey gets excited at Emily’s mentions of powers and says she always thought she’d make a great superhero.
Attack Name Change: Sunny Fire is changed to Sparkle Fire.
Candy: “Channel your glitter spirit into your glitter pact!” Stop. Adding. Glitter. To. Every. Thing. Also, what’s the difference between glitter spirit and regular spirit?
Ya know, as cool as the attack is….I can’t not call BS on her Precure attack just so coincidentally being a volleyball move.
Attack Name Change: Sunny Fire is changed to…wait, what the hell? I already did this. Why did Candy say one attack name but the actual attack is something entirely different? Oh whatever. In the dub, it’s (Glitter Force) Fire Spike, which is better.
Akane asks what the Cure Decor is. Candy explains. Akane says she still doesn’t really get it, but she’ll give it a try. In the dub, Kelsey says she won a prize, Candy explains that it’s a Glitter Charm and that they need to collect them to save her world. Kelsey teasingly asks how many of them there are and hopes there’s a lot. I don’t like this change. It makes it sound odd. Does Kelsey want the road to Candy’s world’s salvation to be long and arduous? Does she want more people in her world to be put at risk?
They omit Akane requesting that Miyuki call her ‘Akane’ instead of ‘Hino’ since they’re friends. This wouldn’t work in the dub because, in addition to people not commonly calling each other by their last names in west….the dub girls…don’t have last names. Good job, Saban.
Instead of doing this, Kelsey says they’re more than teammates, they’re friends.
Candy originally wonders if kids who truly care about their friends are the ones who become Precure. In the dub, Candy says that, in spite of the powers and magical accessories, friendship might be the most powerful thing of all. I kinda prefer the dub line, even though it is insanely cheesy.
Again, they include the creditless end credit sequence in the dub. I honestly don’t get it. This whole sequence is pointless to watch time and again unless the credits roll over it.
——————————
You can find my opinions on the episode as a whole here.
Dub-wise, this episode did fare a lot better than the first one. In fact, a decent chunk of my notes were about the way they wrote certain lines that diminish their impact or meaning, though they retain the message. It’s still important to note these things, in my opinion, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse.
The most I’m disappointed with is the omission of the connection between her fiery passion and determination and her role as Glitter Sunny. We got to focus on Emily and, kinda, why she’s called Glitter Lucky, even if Happy makes much more sense, but they pretty much lose the personality connection in the dub. It focused more on friendship than determination or passion.
Next episode, Cure Peace’s debut!
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
The Anime Madhouse 